Party drug 'Ecstasy' could help PTSD sufferers
Monday, 19 April 2010
, Posted by Ed Allen at 04:42
MDMA, better known as the rave drug 'Ecstasy', is illegal in most countries but may now have an important medical application in helping to ease the suffering of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), following studies by a California based research group.
The use of MDMA to treat PTSD patients whose conditions are resistant to conventional treatments shows a great deal of promise according to clinical trial results presented at a conference in San Jose, California, by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychiatric Studies (MAPS) on Friday.
"The results were very promising, and there were no safety problems or serious adverse events, but we need to replicate this," said Michael Mithoefer, the psychiatrist who led the US study.
People often develop PTSD following a highly traumatic experience, such as sexual abuse or witnessing extreme violence. Those who suffer from the condition often experience flashbacks and vivid nightmares, they can also become emotionally numb and easily frightened.
MAPS has now initiated a pilot study with US veterans and wants to run experiments in other countries, partly to ensure that the drug works in different cultural contexts and also to improve the chances of MDMA being approved as a prescription medicine. If you want to learn more about this research or MAPS then we recommend you take a look at Nature's article.
People often develop PTSD following a highly traumatic experience, such as sexual abuse or witnessing extreme violence. Those who suffer from the condition often experience flashbacks and vivid nightmares, they can also become emotionally numb and easily frightened.
MAPS has now initiated a pilot study with US veterans and wants to run experiments in other countries, partly to ensure that the drug works in different cultural contexts and also to improve the chances of MDMA being approved as a prescription medicine. If you want to learn more about this research or MAPS then we recommend you take a look at Nature's article.
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Wow, thats quite an amazing breakthrough.
Lou
www.vpn-privacy.us.tc
correction - MAPS stands for Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies vs Psychiatric as written above. Large difference ;)
Nothing new. This is what MDMA was used for before it was made illegal.
I wish they ran these tests by unbiased 3rd party groups BEFORE big brother runs in and tells us what we can and can't do.
No one has ever died from MDMA in its pure form. They probably don't want it available to the public because the Big Pharm companies would loose money on their addictive MDMA substitutes.
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Of course this is true, MDMA of Ecstacy was originally designed to treat PTSD for World War one vets.
Sounds like fun!
e cigarette
rave on